BATTLE HONOURS OF THE VARANGIAN GUARD

by Stephen Lowe

--an article from Issue 20 of the Varangian Voice

All right, so you know about Manzikert, and probably Dyrrakhion. But what about the battles the Varangians won?

To remedy this lack I have compiled a list of the actions in which the Varangian Guard definitely or probably took part. The main source is The Varangians of Byzantium by Sigfus Bl�ndal, translated, revised and rewritten by Benedikt Benedikz (Cambridge University Press, 1978). Graeme Walker (2) suggests with good reason that Bl�ndal and Benedikz are a little over-enthusiastic in seeing evidence of Varangian presence in contemporary sources, and I have left out any questionable references.

988 AD � As part of a treaty arrangement, Tsar Vladimir of Kiev sent 6000 men to help Byzantine Emperor Basil II to overcome a rebellion by Bardas Phocas. There had been Norsemen in Byzantine service for over 100 years, but this incident probably marked the beginning of the Varangian Guard as a separate unit. The Varangians surprised a rebel force off-guard at Chrysopolis (across the Bosphorus straits from Constantinople) at table, drinking. They �destroyed not a few of them, scattered the rest in all directions�. A large number of Iberians from Georgia were in Phocas� army (see 1000 AD).

April 989 AD � The Varangians aided Basil in his victory over Bardas Phocas� lieutenant, Delphinas, at Scutari, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.

13 April 989 AD � The Varangians took part in the battle of Abydos, in which Bardas Phocas was finally defeated (dying of a heart attack mid battle).

999 AD � Basil engaged in an expedition to Syria. He besieged and captured Emesa.

�The inhabitants fled into the fortified monastery of Constantine but the Russians (i.e. Varangians) set fire to it and so compelled the defenders to surrender after which the monastery was plundered, even the lead and copper being stripped from the roof."

1000 AD � Basil went to Georgia at the death of King David, to claim lands David had promised to the Empire. The Varangians were with him and a squabble between an Iberian and a Varangian over a bale of hay escalated into a major fight (involving 6000 Varangians) Many Georgians were killed, including 30 men of rank, the Iberian Grand Prince among them.

1001-1008 � Basil II campaigned successfully against Bulgaria, progressively annexing its territories for the Empire. In 1014 this culminated in the battle of Kleidon Pass, when the Bulgarian army was crushed and nine out of every ten Bulgars was sent home blind. In 1018 Basil captured the capital Achrida (Ochrid) and divided the prisoners into three groups � one for himself, one for the Greek soldiers and the third for the Varangians.

1009 � A nobleman named Meles of the Italian city of Bari rebelled in an attempt to create an independent republic. The army sent to quell the rising included �Dani, Rossi and Gualani� (Danes, Russians, and (Welsh?). Bari was recaptured in 1011, but Meles rebelled again with Norman aid. There were three inconclusive battles in 1017, then in 1018 Basil Bioiannes crushed the Normans at the battle of Ofante. Leo of Ostia wrote �When the Emperor heard that brave knights had invaded his land he sent his finest soldiers against them: in the first three battles they fought the Normans won, but when they were matched against the Russians they were totally defeated, and their army was utterly destroyed . . .

1016 � Basil sent the Imperial fleet against the Khazars of the Black Sea, in aid of his nephew Jaroslav of Russia. The fleet was commanded by Byzantine Admiral Mongos Andronikos, assisted by a Russian commander named Svengos (Sveinki). Khazar ruler Georgios Toulos was captured and his territories annexed.

1018 � General Basil Bioiannes went to Sicily and captured Messina from the Arabs, but Protospartharios Orestes in charge of a mixed army (including Russians) lost it again.

1020-1022 � Basil II Moved back to Georgia, as the ruler Keorki (George) was defying him. Basil gave him opportunities to submit, but finally sent his troops on a three month reign of terror in the peaceful region of Ogoni. The Russian Varangians showed great ferocity, killing men, women and children.

In the final battle, on September 11th 1022 at Aghpha near Erzerum, King Keorki, having first asked for peace attempted a surprise attack on the Byzantines. Basil dealt a crushing blow to the Georgians. The Varangians distinguished themselves, attacking before the rest of the army had engaged and putting the Georgians to flight. Basil paid one gold piece for each head and stacked the heads along the road.

The Emperor assembled a second army to reconquer Messina, to be joined by Bioiannes from Italy, but the preparations were cut short by the Emperor�s death in 1025.

1032 � General Georgios Maniakes drove back the Muslim forces threatening Antioch and took Edessa. A soldier �of the Russian people� sent by Maniakes on an errand to the Emir of Harran, lost his temper with the Emir and struck at him with his axe.

1033 � Russian troops formed part of Protospartharios Theoktistos� expedition to help Emir ibn Zairah against the Caliph of Egypt.

1034 � Nineteen year old prince Harald Sigurdsson (Hardrada) of Norway entered Imperial service, bringing 500 warriors with him. According to Snorri Sturlusson, Harald �served on the galleys with the force that went into the Grecian Sea�. The information on Harald�s career in Byzantine service is incomplete and often unreliable, particularly saga references. There are suggestions that he fought Arabs and Pechenegs (�Scyths�), and perhaps visited Jerusalem. He definitely served in Sicily and Bulgaria, and may have been used to attack Arab pirates preying on Byzantine shipping.

1034 � The commander of the Byzantine force which put down a rebellion of King Adam of Sebaste was of the rank of Akolouthos � the title of the commander of the Varangians.

1035 � Varangians were present in the force under Nicholas Pegonites which captured the fort at Berkri in Armenia after a long siege.

1038-1041 � A campaign in Sicily and southern Italy under general Georgios Maniakes included Varangians under Harald. They probably took part in the battles of Rametta and Traina, as well as possibly a sea battle off the coast of Sicily. Maniakes was unpopular with the Varangians in general and Harald in particular. After his service in Sicily, Harald was awarded the Byzantine rank of Manglavites.

1038-1040 � The Italian city of Bari rebelled against Imperial rule in 1038, to be followed in 1040 by Mottola. Bari was recaptured the same year, and a new katepanos, Michael Dokeianos, arrived with Varangians amongst his army. Saga references suggest that Harald was included in this number � there are references to his fighting against Longobardi (Lombards) and Franks (Normans).

1041 - There were two great battles in Italy against the Normans in this campaign. In both � Olivento on 17 March and Montemaggiore on 4 May - the Normans won against superior Byzantine numbers. Reference is made to high casualties among the Rhos � at Montemaggiore � . . . much of Dokeianos� army was drowned in the river Ofanto, which was in full flood.� (Blondal/ Benedikz p10) The army of Exaugustus (Viceroy) Bioiannes which was disastrously defeated at Monte Siricolo also contained Varangians.

1040-1041 � Georgios Maniakes was sent to crush a Bulgarian revolt under Peter Deleanos. The rebellion was initially successful, but started to fall apart after failing to take Thessaloniki. Alousian, the brother of the deposed Tsar of Bulgaria, captured and blinded Deleanos, and continued the rebellion, but this ended in surrender to the Emperor. Harald was present at this campaign, and was raised to the rank of Spartharokandidatos for his part in it.

1042 � Varangians were involved in the overthrow and blinding of the unpopular Emperor Michael V. Haraldr had been imprisoned by Michael but was now released. Shortly afterwards he left for Russia and then Scandinavia to contest the throne of Norway.

Georgios Maniakes had fallen from favor and was recalled from Italy to Constantinople. Instead, he proclaimed himself Emperor and went to war against the Empire. He was defeated and killed at the battle of Ostrovo by an Imperial army containing several companies of Varangians under the Sebastophorus Stephen. In the triumphal procession through Constantinople the Varangians, axes on shoulders, marched ahead of the victorious general, while another contingent marched behind Manaikes� severed head.

1043 � When Prince Jaroslav of Kiev sent a fleet to attack Constantinople, Emperor Constantine sent those of his Varangian Guards who were from Russia to serve in distant frontier provinces, and put all the Russians in Constantinople under guard. The fleet was destroyed by Greek Fire from the Byzantine navy.

1044 � The Varangian Guard protected Emperor Constantine from an outraged mob, which believed he was trying to murder his wife Empress Zo� and her sister.

1045 � A force of 3000 Varangians was used to help King Liparit rebel against his overlord King Bagrat IV of Carthelia and Abkhasia, and 700-800 of them took part in the battle of Sasir in which Liparit completely defeated Bagrat.

1046 � Varangians accompanied the Katepanos of Italy, John Raphael, in Bari.

1047 � When the Emperor had only his mercenary troops in the Capital, General Leo Tornicius raised a rebellion, but was forced to capitulate and was blinded.

1048 � A Varangian force captured Stira and Lecce in Italy and took Bari after a further rebellion but could not hold it, and was able to release the Katepanos Eustathios Palatinus only by agreeing to let the town remain free.

After Pechenegs invaded Bulgaria, defeating Constantine Arianites at Adrianople, Nicolas Glavas managed to contain them. The Varangians took part and shortly afterwards caught a band of Pechenegs at Calasyrta near Constantinople, and laid their heads at the Emperor�s feet.

A new force, including the Varangians under their Akolouthos Michael, was sent to finish off the Pechenegs. Michael fought and defeated them at Goloe and Toplitzon, and together with Nikephoros Bryennios defeated them again at Chariopolis.

During an interval in this campaign Michael took the Varangians to Asia Minor, and assembled an army at Caesarea to restrain Seljuq Sultan Tughrul from raiding the frontier Themes.

1055 � Varangians took part in putting down an attempted coup by Theodosios.

20 August 1057 � At the battle of Petroe (near Nicaea) Michael VI was forced to abdicate in favor of Isaac Comnenos. Varangian forces fought on both sides. Four Varangians are said to have attacked Isaac with spears which struck from four sides simultaneously and were turned by his armour, enabling him to stay upright in the saddle and be rescued a moment later.

1064 � Varangians were among the defenders at Otranto, which fell to the besieging Normans by a trick. Some escaped by ship.

1066 � A mostly Varangian army was sent to Bari under Mabrikias and recaptured Brindisi, Taranto and Castellaneta. In Brindisi a Norman counter attack was defeated when the commander, Nikephoros Karantenos, pretended to surrender then attacked the Normans as they were climbing ladders to cross the town wall, decapitated 100 corpses and sent the heads to the Emperor. The Varangians were also part of a Byzantine fleet which defeated Robert Guiscard off Brindisi.

1068 � On campaign against the Turks in Asia Minor under Romanos Diogenes, the Varangians took the gates of the citadel of Hierapolis, which had threatened to defeat the Imperial assault.

1070 � Varangian troops were withdrawn from Asia Minor to shore up the failing defenses of the Empire�s Italian possessions. Despite this, the last strongholds in Italy fell the following year.

19 (or perhaps 26) August 1071 � At the disastrous battle of Manzikert virtually all the Emperor�s Guards fell around him. Judging by the make-up of the armies which had accompanied the Emperor on campaign in Asia Minor in previous years, it is likely that the Varangians were present here, as well, though they are not specifically mentioned by the chroniclers.

1077 � Varangians in Byzantine service were part of an attack on John, brother of Imperial usurper Nikephoros Bryennios at Athyras (14 miles from Constantinople). The Varangians launched a seaborne attack which was so successful that John fled precipitately. When the land forces arrived (late) he was so far away that they were unable to catch him.

Large numbers of disaffected Varangians were in the army of John and Nikephoros Bryennois, later defeated by Alexios Comnenos at Kalouryta. John was, however, forgiven and accepted back into Imperial service, but was recognized by a Varangian whose nose he had ordered cut off. The Varangian killed him with his axe. Shortly afterwards (perhaps because of the Guardsman�s punishment?), Emperor Nikephoros Botaniates was unsuccessfully attacked by a band of drunken Varangian Guards in his palace.

1078 � After Michael VII was overthrown by Nikephoros Botaniates, Basiliakes, the former governor of Dyrrakhion declared himself Emperor and marched on Constantinople with Varangians in his army. He was defeated at the river Vardar and retreated to Thessaloniki. However, he was handed over to the Imperial forces by his own men.

March 1081 � Alexios Comnenos, having decided to seize the throne, appeared with an army before Constantinople which was defended only by the Athanatoi (�Immortals�) and the Varangian Guards, plus a detachment of Germans guarding the Kharisian Gate. Comnenos decided it would be impossible to sway the loyalty of the Athanatoi and the Varangians, and bribed the Germans to open the gate. The Varangians stayed faithful to the Emperor, but he decided to abdicate rather than risk a bloody civil war.

18 October 1081- Battle of Dyrrachion. The Varangians, after initial success against Norman forces from Italy, were isolated from the main body of the Army, and the church they were sheltering in was burnt down. The Normans under Robert Guiscard took the city, and later the town of Kastoria, garrisoned by Varangians. However, the Norman army stalled, losing a battle at Larissa, and lost all its gains within four years.

1085- Varangians were in the Imperial army when it was defeated by Pechenegs at Silistra in the Balkans. The Pechenegs were finally defeated in 1091.

The Varangians probably took part in the wars against the Serbs and the Turks during the reign of Alexius Comnenus.

1097- Alexius, and therefore the Varangian Guard, was present at the recapture of Nicaea by the combined forces of the Empire and the First Crusade.

1098- Alexius would have been accompanied by his Varangian Guard on his campaign to extend his rule into Asia Minor.

1118 to 1122- Varangian Guards probably accompanied John II Comnenus on his campaigns.

1122- Battle of Beroe, under John II Comnenus, against the Pechenegs. After Frankish, Greek and Fleming units failed to break the Pechenegs' defensive circle of wagons, John sent his wineskins - the Varangians - against it. they broke through and the Pechenegs were overwhelmingly defeated.

1137- Varangians were probably with John II at the siege of Antioch.

1149- Varangian reinforcements were sent to aid in the unsuccessful defense of Thebes from the attack by Roger II of Sicily, Varangian Guards probably accompanied Emperor Manuel II in its recapture from Roger.

1154- 300 Varangian Guards were instrumental in foiling an attempt to assassinate Manuel II.

1155 to 1156- Renault de Chatillon, crusader Prince of Antioch attacked Cyprus, which numbered Varangians among its garrisons, but after the initial success was defeated and brought by the Varangians to grovel at the Emperor's feet. A little later Varangians were very much in evidence when Manuel made his state entry into Antioch as its conqueror.

1172- Varangians were probably in the fleet sent unsuccessfully against the Venetians.

11 September 1176- Manuel took the Varangians with him when he undertook an expedition against the Turks of Asia Minor. The army was taken by surprise and shattered at Myriokephalum. Manuel barely escaped with his life, most of the Varangians accompanying him were killed, though some English ones escaped and were sent home to bring the news to Henry II.

1179- Varangians were probably present with Manuel at Claudiopolis where he drove the Turks back and concluded a peace with them.

1200- The Varangian Guard were used to put down two attempts to overthrow Emperor Alexius III.

1203 to 1204- Varangian Guards played a major part in the defense of Constantinople against the Fourth Crusade, but finally surrendered to the victorious Latins.

1204-1261- There are indications that the Latin Emperors of Byzantium had their own unit of Varangian Guards, who saw action against the pagans.

1205 onwards- A unit of Varangian Guards served the Byzantine Empire-in-exile in Nicaea.

1233- The Varangians were probably involved in the campaigns of John III of Nicaea against the Latin Empire, and his capture of the Greek empire-in-exile at Thessalonika.

1261- The Latin Empire finally crumbled and the Byzantines returned to Constantinople.

1264- The Varangians were among a Byzantine army defeated by Franks at Makriplagi.

1265- The Varangian Guard were instrumental in freeing the former Seljuk Sultan Azz-ed-Din, when the Bulgarian Tsar ambushed the Byzantine army and besieged them in the small town of Ainos. In return for Azz-ed-Din's freedom, the Tsar granted the garrison their lives and allowed them to keep the town. A relief force arrived the next day and the Varangians returned to a furious Emperor who had them flogged, dressed in women's clothes and led on donkeys around the streets of Constantinople.

Up to 1272- Michael VIII used the Varangian Guard extensively in campaigns to regain territory in the Balkans and Asia Minor.

From this point on there are no references to Varangians in battle - the only mentions relate to guard duties and ceremonial within the city. the last reference to Varangians in service relates to their use in 1341 as bodyguards to the young John V.

The “Varangian Rhomphaia”: a Cautionary tale

This article was originally published in the Varangian Voice no. 22 (May 1992) pp. 24-6. It has been slightly revised.

The Varangians of Constantinople, personal bodyguard to the Emperors of Byzantium, had a fearsome reputation for effectiveness in battle. In recent decades the explanation for this reputation was attributed, at least in part, to a unique weapon. It was called a “rhomphaia” and was believed to be a short pole-arm with a long, narrow blade hooked at the point. The provenance of this weapon is questionable, and the answer to that question has important lessons for anyone researching the military equipment of Byzantium

The weapon first appears in the 1978 Wargames Research Group book, Armies of the Dark Ages, and then in the Osprey Men at Arms Series volume 89, Byzantine Armies 886—1118, both written by Ian Heath. Both books are full of pretty pictures and glib summaries, which is always seductive, so they gained a wide readership and even been cited in scholarly texts. In the Osprey volume the author went so for as to give a primary source, the eleventh century historian Micheal Psellos, thus:

“Psellos, however, claims that every Varangian ‘without exception’ was armed with a shield and rhomphaia, a one-edged sword of heavy iron which they carry suspended from the right shoulder.”

Although he does not acknowledge it, it is clear that Heath has used the translation of E.R.A. Sewter, which closer study reveals to be quite misleading. Heath evidently made no attempt to check the original Greek, had he done so, his explanation attached to the end of this quote, “(perhaps meaning it was sloped across the right shoulder when not in use)”, would not have been so tentative. Sewter’s use of the term “suspended” is quite inappropriate. Consulting Liddel and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, the standard reference for a century and a half, we find that the verb Psellos uses, “episeiein / ἐπισείειν”, has a complex of meanings which may be summarised as “to shake or brandish in a threatening manner”. Sewter also fails to translate an indefinite pronoun which if included significantly changes the sense of the description. A better translation for the sentence is:

“The whole group carry shields and brandish on their shoulders a certain (sic) single-edged, heavy-iron weapon.”

Turning again to Liddel and Scott, the sequence of deduction which turned this vague description into a Dacian falx in the Wargames Research Group book also becomes clearer with the following:

Rhomphaia = a large, heavy sword used by the Thracians — Orthas rhomphaias barusidêrous apo tôn ômôn episeiontes. Plutarch, (in his biography of) Aemilius Paulus.

If one identifies Thracians with Dacians, it is a reasonable step to equate the rhomphaia with the falx shown on the reliefs on Trajan’s column, a monument of the same century as Plutarch, but in doing so Heath has further revealed his ignorance of Greek. In this quote the first word is all-important. Orthas means “straight” and it is hard to imagine that Plutarch would have described something of as distinctive a shape as the falx as being straight. On this ground alone Heath’s Varangian rhomphaia must be rejected as a fiction, but we are still left with the question of what Psellos was, in fact, referring to.

Psellos makes another substantial reference to the Varangians after their arrival in Byzantium. In it he repeats the quote from Plutarch given above almost word for word. The only difference being to make the number of rhomphaiai and the number of shoulders singular. In his last reference to the Varangians he plainly describes them as bearing “single-edged axes” (axinas heterostomous). I shall return to the precise significance of these things later.

Further information comes from another Byzantine source of some half century or so later, the Alexiad of Anna Komnênê. Komnênê mentions the Varangians eight times, yet in only one of those does she mention the rhomphaia. What is her description of the Guard otherwise? On six occasions (including the one which also contains therhomphaia) she uses the term xiphos, in a formula which varied only a little — “bearing or brandishing on their shoulders the xiphos”. The xiphos was originally the ancient Greek cruciform short-sword, but the term was commonly used in medieval Greek for any bladed weapon. The swords then in use were consistently called in less stylised literature by various terms evolved for specific varieties. The occasion on which Komnênê mentions the rhomphaia is instructive. It describes the Varangians surrounding the Emperor “some with xiphê (plural) girded on, some carrying spears and some having on their shoulders the heavy iron rhomphaia”. On this occasion, quite inconsistently, Sewter actually translates rhomphaia, and does so as “axe”. In this case Komnênê has indeed used xiphos for sword, as shown by them being “girded on”, that is in a scabbard on a belt, which has left her looking for a term for this weapon carried on the shoulder. She found an established usage in Psellos, although we can can be sure she took it with no enthusiasm, for reasons I shall shortly explain. The remaining reference to the Varangians is also enlightening, for there at last we have them explicitly described as “axe-bearing” (pelekunophoros).

A consistent pattern should now be apparent - the use of a stock phrase with a few variations. The Varangians are described as brandishing on their shoulders a weapon, for which the antiquarian names rhomphaia and xiphos are used, and which is often described as “single-edged” (heterostomos) or “heavy-iron” (barusideros), or both. The explanation for this is to be found in Byzantine literary conventions.

Originality was never a virtue in Byzantine literature. On the contrary, good literary form lay in borrowing the style and even the phraseology and words of the past, especially of the classical era. This is called the principle of “mimêsis” or imitation, or “Atticism”. Psellos and Komnênê were both thoroughly imbued with this mimetic tradition. No warrior of the classical past ever fought with a wood-axe (pelekus), so to acknowledge that anyone did so in their day was to be avoided. So confronted with the Varangians with their great axes they sought ways to refer to this distinctive feature without compromising their memetic aim. In this Komnênê was more consistent than Psellos. She was able use xiphos, a term of the purest classical provenance, while in using rhomphaia Psellos only went back to the second century C.E., an era regarded as being hardly less linguistically degenerate than the common speech of the eleventh century by the standards of Atticism. (That is why Komnênê would have been unhappy to have been compelled to copy Psellos in the occasion discussed earlier.) In his use of axinê Psellos did better, for that can be found in Homer. We can conjecture that Komnênê was most concerned with overall consistent Atticism, (the use of pelekunophoros being an unaccountable lapse) while Psellos wanted to exhibit the diversity of his reading.

The conclusion is clear. The Varangian rhomphaia is a fiction, a literary contrivance, concocted between the stylisation of mediaeval Greek prose and the ignorance of modern popular authorship. It never existed in the form of a curved pole-arm proposed by Ian Heath. Byzantine culture and art were formed by social and ideological forces quite unlike those of medieval Europe. A great deal of work is still to be done to gain a clear picture of its soldiery, both native and foreign.

Timothy Dawson

Select bibliography

Anna Komnênê, Alexiade, ed. Bernard Leib, Société d'Edition «Les Belles Lettres» 1945 (Original Greek)
Anna Komnênê, Alexiad, tr. E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Books 1985
J.F. Haldon ‘Some aspects of Byzantine military technology from the sixth to tenth centuries’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Volume 1 (1975)
H. Hunger ‘On the imitation (MIMHSIS) of Antiquity’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 23-24 (1969-70) Washington D.C.
Liddel and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, 1843 etc
Michael Psellos, Chronographie, Société d'Edition «Les Belles Lettres» 1967 (Original Greek)
Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers tr. E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Books 1966

English Refugees in the Byzantine Armed Forces: The Varangian Guard and Anglo-Saxon Ethnic Consciousness

 By Nicholas C.J. Pappas

Sam Houston State University

One of the most interesting episodes in Byzantine military history and in medieval English history is the Anglo-Saxon participation and service in the Varangian Guards regiment from the late 11th to the early 13th century. In the 11th century, as a result of crises suffered by the Byzantine state (feudalization of the armed forces, civil-military conflict in the government, the loss of Asia Minor to the Seljuk Turks, the loss of Southern Italy to the Normans, etc.) the Byzantine army became increasingly dependent upon mercenary forces.

[1]Among the troops recruited into service of the Byzantine Emperor were Anglo-Saxons, who eventually made up the main component of the traditional foreign mercenary force that guarded the person of the Emperor. The crisis in Anglo-Saxon state and society brought on by the Norman Conquest created an Anglo-Saxon emigration, part of which found refuge and employment in Byzantium.  Up until the Norman conquest of England, the Varangian guards consisted chiefly of Scandinavian and Kievan Rus' warriors.  Important work has been done on the development of the Varangian guard during its others.  There are a number of problems that this paper will address.

This paper will attempt to investigate the influx of English mercenaries into the Byzantine Army in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066.  In particular it will study the changes in the elite Varangian Guards Regiment that came about by the entry of troops from England.  Since the regiment up until that time consisted of Scandinavian and Kievan Rus’ troops, there is also a question as to whether there was a Norse and Russian connection to the Anglo-Saxon initiation into Byzantine service.   The paper will also look into any evidence of ethnic or national consciousness among those English émigrés serving the Emperor in Constantinople from 1066 to 1204.

This fascinating yet little known aspect of the transformation of Anglo-Saxon England in the wake of the Norman Conquest has been the subject of increasing scrutiny and investigation by scholars of Anglo-Saxon, medieval Scandinavian, and Byzantine history.[2] While the knowledge of English serving in Byzantium has existed among modern scholars since the beginning of the systematic study of sources in the nineteenth century,[3] the first significant study solely on the Anglo-Saxon military migration was made by A. A. Vasiliev in 1937.  The great Russian émigré Byzantinist had earlier worked on the relations between Henry II Plantagenet and Manuel I Comnenus.  He noted the mention of Englishmen serving in the Byzantine army in the correspondence of Manuel to Henry.[4]  In his later study concentrating on English emigration to Byzantium, Vasiliev asserted that the warriors from England began arriving in Byzantium to serve in the Varangian guard well before 1066.  He believed that Anglo-Danish huscarls entered service after leaving England upon the death of King Canute in 1035.[5]  Citing Orderic's chronicle, Vasilievskii's edition of Cecaumenus, and Byzantinechrysobuls, Vasiliev stated that English were serving widely in the Byzantine military by the 1070's and 1080's prior to the accession of Alexius Comnenus.[6]  This view was challenged by Franz Dölger in a review of Vasiliev's article.  He argued that the evidence, particularly the chrysobuls that exempted monasteries' obligations toward imperial troops, which mention Inglinoi and Varangoi, is inconclusive over the question of the influx of English troops specifically within the Varangian Guard.[7]

Since that time scholars have debated when and to what extent did English enter service in the Guard.  In the last fifteen years several articles, essays and two book-length studies have appeared which have dealt wholly or in part with the English in the Varangian Guard.[8]  Another issue that has been addressed in recent scholarship is whether the Anglo-Saxons dominated the Varangian guard from the late 11th century to the early 13th century.  The paper will now review scholarship on those two problems and will also address the question of continuity and change in the Varangian guard in its Anglo-Saxon period.  By continuity and change, I not only consider ethnic/regional composition, but also the organization, tactics, and duties of the Varangian Guard.

The Varangian Guard's origin is veiled with some ambiguity, as is the case with many of the military institutions of the Byzantine state.  Traditonally, the emperors in Constantinople employed foreign mercenaries for the Imperial guard since Constantine I transferred the Roman Empire's capitol to Byzantium.  Indeed, earlier Roman Emperors had used foreign troops as personal retainers, notably the Germanic troops under the Principate starting with Augustus.[9]  The foreign troops of the later Roman Empire were known asfoederati  (Gr. Foideratoi) and came mostly from Germanic and Turkic peoples who were migrating into the territory of the Roman empire--Goths, Franks, Heruls, Lombards, Huns and others.  The term foederati was used to denote foreign troops until about the ninth century.[10]  From the ninth century at the latest, foreign troops in the imperial guard were known as the Etaireiai (Lt. Hetaireiae, companion companies).  The Book of Ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenitus described the Hetaireiai as being divided into three units, the Megale Hetaireia (Great company), the Mese Hetaireia (Middle Company), and the Mikre Hetaireia (Little Company).[11]  According to some scholars, the Great, Middle and Little Companies consisted of the Christian subjects, Christian foreigners, and non-Christian foreigners respectively.  Positions in the Hetaireia guards were venal; recruits had to pay a bounty of 16, 10 and 7 pounds of gold respectively for entrance into the Great, Middle and Little Companies.  Perhaps the payments were for the cost of regular and ceremonial uniforms and accoutrements of recruits, hence real "investments."[12]

The first Varangians in Byzantine Service, according to Benedikz and Blondal, were Christianized Russians (Rōs, for both Scandinavians and Slavs), who served with Dalmatians in the Great Company as marines in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus (ca. 930-950).[13]  Rōs served in naval expeditions against Crete in 902 and 949, and land campaigns in Syria in 955.[14]  It was no doubt this service that brought them into the Imperial guards.

Under Basil II (976-1025), the troops from the land of Kievan Rus' were organized into a separate unit that became known as the Varangian guard.[15]  Whether these initial troops were Scandinavian or Slavonic in ethnicity has been open to dispute, as part of the general "Normanist Controversy" in the historiography of early medieval Russia.[16]  Suffice it to say that the initial troops of the guard came from the lower terminus of the Great Eastern or Varangian route between the Baltic and the Black Sea, which became known as the Kievan Rus' Principality.[17]  These troops were initially from Kievan Rus' Lands, be they of Scandinavian or Slavonic origin.  From the founding of the Varangian Guard to the last decade of the 11th century, the major component of the unit was Scandinavian. The troops initially were recruited from the lands of the Rus' principalities and later came from further regions--Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and England.[18]

Sigfus Blondal and Benedict Benedikz have presented the most detailed account of this period of the Guard's history and have offered varied evidence--Byzantine and Latin histories and chronicles, Scandinavian sagas, Slavonic saints' lives, and runic inscriptions--to show the importance of the Scandinavian element in the guard.[19]  Sigfus Blondal (1874-1950), in an article in English and a posthumous book in Icelandic, argued that the Scandinavian element in the guard remained predominant up to the thirteenth century.[20] However, in an English edition translated, expanded and revised by Benedict Benedikz, the case of extensive English service in the guard from the late 11th century is accepted.[21]

This generally-accepted conclusion came about as the result of extensive research and painstaking analysis of a variety of sources by a number of scholars since the 1940's and especially in the last 15 years.  They have studied and argued over the meaning of Byzantine sources such as the chrysobuls mentioned above, the Strategikon of Cecaumenus, the Alexiad of Anna Comnena; Latin sources, such as the Historia ecclesiatica of Ordericus Vitalis and the Chronicon universale anonymi Laudunensis; and Scandinavian sources, such as the Jatvardar saga and the Heimskringla.  While legendary and conflicting accounts have led to differences of opinions among scholars, nonetheless corroboration of disparate sources have led virtually all scholars to agree on one point.  A sizable contingent of Anglo-Saxons and Danes, who were not reconciled to Norman Rule in England, immigrated to Byzantium in the 1070's.  Their emigration was by sea through the Mediterranean.[22]  Some of the refugees did not accept imperial service and were allowed to settle in some area along the Black Sea coast.  Others took on imperial service and became an important component in the Varangian Guard.[23]

A fascinating aspect of the account of migration pieced together by historians from Ordericus Vitalis, the Jarvardar saga and theChronicon laudunsienses are indications of an Anglo-Saxon ethnic consciousness.  According to Ordericus Vitalis, "The English groaned aloud for their lost liberty and plotted ceaselessly to find some way of shaking off that what was so intolerable and unaccustomed."  After some of the English opponents of Norman rule attempted to offer the English throne to the King of Denmark...

Others fled into voluntary exile so that they might either find in banishment freedom from the power of the Normans or secure foreign help and come back to fight a war of vengeance.  Some of them who were still in the flower of youth traveled into remote lands and bravely offered their arms to Alexius, emperor of Constantinople, a man of great wisdom and nobility.  Robert Guiscard, the duke of Apulia, had taken up arms against him in support of Michael, whom the Greeks, resenting the power of the senate, had driven from the imperial throne.  Consequently the English exiles were warmly welcomed by the Greeks and were sent into battle against the Norman forces, which were too powerful for the Greeks alone...This is the reason for the English exodus to Ionia; the emigrants and their heir faithfully served the holy empire, and are still honored among the Greeks by Emperor, nobility and people alike.[24]

A number of modern scholars believe that among the first military operations in which the Anglo-Saxons of the Varangian guard were involved was the Byzantine campaign in the Balkans against the Italo-Norman forces of Robert Guiscard.  The Alexiad of Anna Comnena mentions their participation and elsewhere reports that these troops came from "Thule".[25]  While this evidence has been open to dispute, revenge against the Normans may have been a factor in Anglo-Saxon service.[26]

Another hint of ethnic consciousness appears in the account of the Jarvardar saga, which tells the story of the emigration of a large body of Anglo-Saxons, in 350 ships, which arrived in Constantinople in time to save the city from a naval attack by "heathens". Following this engagement:

They stayed a while in Micklegarth [Constantinople], and set the realm of the Greek-king free from strife.  King Kirjalax [Alexius] offered them to abide there and guard his body as was wont of the Varangians who went into his pay, but it seemed to earl Sigurd and the other chiefs that it was too small a career to grow old there in that fashion, that they had not a realm to rule over; and they begged the king to give them some towns or cities which they might own and their heirs after them...king Kirjalax told them that he knew of a land lying north in the sea, which had lain of old under the emperor of Micklegarth, but in later days the heathen had won it and abode in it.  And when the Englishmen heard that, they took a title from king Kirjalax that the land should be their own and their heirs after them if they could get it won under them from the heathen men free from tax and toll.  The king granted them this.  After that the Englishmen fared away out of Micklegarth and north into the sea, but some chiefs stayed behind in Micklegarth, and went into service there.  Earl Sigurd and his men came to this land and had many battles there and got the land won, but drove away all the folk that abode there before. After that they took that land into possession and gave it a name, and called it England.   To the towns that were in the land and to those which they built they gave the names of the towns of England. They called them both London and York, and by the names of other great towns in England...This land lies six days' and six nights' sail across the sea to the east and northeast of Micklegarth; and there is the best land there; and that folk has abode there ever since.[27]

According to the recently discovered Chronicon universale anonymi Laudunensis, a group of English notables immigrated to Byzantium in 235 ships, reaching Constantinople in 1075.  Some 4350 of the emigrants and their families remained in Constantinople in imperial service, while a majority of the refugees sailed to a place called Domapia, six days' journey from Byzantium, conquered it and renamed it Nova Anglia (New England).[28]

This account of these two sources has caught the attention of a number of scholars who have speculated as to the probability of such an Anglo-Saxon settlement, its location, and its possible role as an outpost of Latin Christendom.[29]  While there are fanciful and contradictory elements in the accounts of this emigration, most scholars agree that they are based on a real event or series of events. What are most interesting in these accounts are elements of ethnic identity, which are also evidenced in other sources that deal with the English in the Varangian guard. 

These hints of ethnic consciousness among the English in the Varangian Guard include the legend of the founding of an English church in Constantinople:

While the first king from the Normans, William, was reigning over England, an honorable man, educated in the chapter of the Blessed Augustine, along with many other noble exiles from the fatherland (patrie profugis), migrated to Constantinople; he obtained such favor with the emperor and empress as well as with other powerful men as to receive command over prominent troops and over a great number of companions; no newcomer for very many years had obtained such an honor.  He married a noble and wealthy woman, and remembering the gifts of God, built, close to his own home, a basilica in honor of the Blessed Nicholas and Saint Augustine.[30]

Although questions have arisen as to the existence of this church, some scholars have identified it with a ruined chapel of Bogdan Sarai in Istanbul.[31]

Another example of the English identity in Byzantium is an account of a pilgrim-monk Joseph, who, while in Constantinople, "found a number of men there who came from his own fatherland (patria) and were from the imperial household (family)."  These men, probably Varangian guardsmen, were able to get Joseph permission to view the imperial treasury of relics, of which he reputedly lifted a piece of a relic of Saint Andrew.[32]

The identity of the Varangian guardsmen as English went on for generations, as one authority has stated: 

The English for their part no longer had a homeland.  They seem to have transplanted elements of the society they had known to Constantinople, such as their class structure, and their religion...The English Varangians seem to have preserved a distinctive identity well into the twelfth century if not later.[33]

The English were the most prominent element in the Varangian Guard from the late 11th to the 13th century.  Although there were probably few Englishmen serving in the guard by the time of its writing, the 14th-century Book of Offices of Georgios Kodinos or Pseudo-Kodinos mentions the Christmas custom of the Guard.  "Then the Varangians come and wish the Emperor many years in the language of their country, that is, English, and beating their battle-axes with load noise."[34] An earlier Byzantine source called them "the axe-bearing Britons, now called English."[35]  Nonetheless, the guard was not wholly English, a number of sources mention Danes in the guard.[36]  This seems natural in that Anglo-Danes and Danes played such an important role in the Anglo-Saxon military, particularly in the huscarls. [37]

While most scholars have discussed the problem of the composition of the Varangian Guard from the point of view of ethnic and regional changes, there are other factors such as organization and tactics that have received less attention.  It is important to note not only the discontinuity in the ethic/regional changes in the guard from Kievan Rus' to Scandinavian to English and Danish, but it is necessary to reiterate some elements of continuity in the guard.  These elements are found in the guard's basic purpose, organization and tactics.

As to the purpose of the guard, the Varangians served as the personal life guard of the emperor and swore an oath of loyalty to him.  They had formal duties within the imperial ritual, both as ceremonial retainers and acclaimers of the Emperor.  They had police duties as personal guards of the emperor similar to a secret service; they could defend against plots and punish conspirators.  They were avengers and/or executioners of persons threatening sedition, rebellion or treason against imperial authority.  They also had extensive military duties, either when the emperor was on campaign, or on detached service with imperial armies.[38]

What is important is that the duties of the Varangians were similar to the Kievan Rus' druzhina, the vikinge-lag of Sweden, Norway and Denmark and the huscarls (Housecarls) of Denmark and England.[39]  All of these institutions were mercenary companies that served rulers personally as a bodyguards and elite units.  The organization, discipline and of the Varangian Guard, as described in Blondal and Benedikz, was based upon the same customs as the abovementioned units.[40]  Inviolability of the oath, personal loyalty, and the use of the battle-axe were hallmarks of service in all of these mercenary institutions.[41]  Thus institutionally there was a continuity that encompassed all Varangians, be they of Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, or English background.  Not only were there institutional and ethnic links that tied the English to Varangians of other backgrounds, but also personal associations. The fact that Harald Hardrada, one of the rival claimants to the English throne in 1066, had served prominently in the Varangian Guard no doubt was well known and was an influence for English entry into the guard.[42]  The links of the English Varangians to the Scandinavian and even Russian Varangians may be closer than one thinks.  For example, ties between the Kievan Rus' and England were not unknown.  The exiled Gyda, daughter of Harold II Godwinson, married Kievan Prince Vladimir Monomakh through an arrangement by the king of Denmark.[43]  A. A. Vasiliev's early assertion that English may have served in the guard or in other Byzantine mercenary forces prior to 1066 has been revived.  Krinije Ciggaar, in an essay entitled "England and Byzantium on the Eve of the Norman Conquest (The Reign of King Edward the Confessor)," reviews the contacts between Byzantium and England in Edward's time and concluded that, "Relations were not limited to the royal court.  Pilgrims also contributed to a wider expansion of Greek influence in the British isles.  It is my hypothesis that before 1066 Anglo-Saxons went eastwards to serve in the Greek army."[44]

Much information on the subject of English in Byzantine military service has become more established and detailed with the efforts of recent scholarship, but the conflicting and disparate nature of the sources, together with their scarcity, have left a number of questions unanswered.  While all scholars agree there was a significant influx of Anglo-Saxons into the Byzantine army, and especially the Varangian Guard, in the late eleventh century.  They have not yet clearly established if Scandinavian, Russian, or Byzantine links may have influenced this entry, either through earlier mercenary service or through other avenues.  They have also not explained how the English character of the guard continued for over a century.  Was the English identity of the guard passed on to generations born into the service in Byzantium, or were there subsequent recruitments of English into the Varangians.  Some scholars have indicated that there may have been later English influxes into the guards, but the evidence is not conclusive.[45]  It is hoped that these and other questions will challenge Anglo/Byzantine scholars in the years to come.

End Notes

[1]On this problem, see, Speros Vryonis, "Byzantine and Turkish societies
and their source of manpower," in War, Technology, and Society in the Middles East, V. J. Parry and M. E. Yapp, eds. (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 125-152;  and Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century (Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1972), pp. 86-142.

[2] This interest is not limited to scholars, In the 1990’s group of medieval re-enactors in Australia organized an association known as the New Varangian Guard, which works toward recreating elements of Varangian history.  It publishes a quarterly journal entitledVarangian Voice, which includes historical information, as well as news regarding the activities of the association and practical information on reproducing armor, costume and weaponry. See their web site at:  http://www.geocities.com/svenskildbiter/NVGInc/.

[3]See for example:  E. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1971), pp. 627-633; the commentary of Jacob Gretser and Jacob Goar of Geōrgios Kōdinos, Peri tōn offikialiōn tou palatiou tou Kōnstantinoupoleōs (De officiis),  in J. P. Migne, ed.,  Patrologiae Cursus Completus,  vol. 157  (Paris, 1854), pp. 294-295; and G. Vasilievskii, "Variago-russkaia i variaggo-angliiskaia druzhina," in Trudy, I (St. Petersburgh, 1908), pp. 355-378.

[4]A. A. Vasiliev,  "Manuel Comnenus and Henry Plantagenet," Byzantinsches Zeitschrifte  29 (1929-30): 239-240.

[5]A. A. Vasiliev, "The Opening Stages of the Anglo Saxon  Immigration to Byzantium in the Eleventh Century,"  Seminarium Kondakovianum   9 (1937): 45.  Earlier, another Russian scholar, V. G. Vasilievskii, "Variago-russkaia i variaggo-angliiskaia druzhina," pp. 356-358, questioned the early influx of Anglo-Saxons, but Vasilievskii also believed that the ethnic composition of the Varangian Guard remained Scandinavian and Slavonic from the lands of the Kievan Rus' throughout the 11th century (pp. 347-350). 

[6]A. A. Vasiliev, "The Opening Stages of the Anglo Saxon  Immigration to Byzantium in the Eleventh Century," pp. 53-59.

[7]Franz Dölger, "Review of  [A. A. Vasiliev, "The Opening Stages of the Anglo Saxon  Immigration to Byzantium in the Eleventh Century,"  Seminarium  Kondakovianum   9 (1937): 39-70], Byzantinsches Zeitschrifte  38 (1938): 235-236.  The most cogent analysis of the problem of the chrysobuls is found in Jonathan Shepard, " The English and Byzantium:   A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century," Traditio  29 (1973): 53-92.

[8]These include:  Benedikt S. Benedikz, "The Origin and Development of the Varangian Regiment in the Byzantine Army," Byzantinsches Zeitschrifte   62 (1969): 23-24; Sigfus Blöndal, The Varangians of Byzantium, Benedikt S. Benedikz, tr., rev. and ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978);  Krijnie Ciggaar, "England and Byzantium on the Eve of the Norman Conquest,"Anglo-Norman Studies.  Proceedings of the Fifth Battle Abbey Conference  5(1981): 78-96;  Krijnie Ciggaar, "L'emigration anglaise a Byzance apres 1066," Revue des etudes Byzantines  32 (1974): 301-342;  Krijnie Ciggaar,  Byzance et l'Angleterre  (Doctoral Dissertation: Leiden, 1976);  Christine Fell,  " The Icelandic Saga of Edward the Confessor:  Its Version of the Anglo-Saxon Emigration to Byzantium,"  Anglo-Saxon England  3 (1974): 179-196;  John Godfrey, "The Defeated Anglo-Saxons Take Service with the Eastern Emperor," Anglo-Norman Studies.  Proceedings of the First Battle Abbey Conference  1 (1978): 63-74, 207-209;  Constance Head, "Alexios Comnenos and the English," Byzantion  47 (1977): 186-198;  Donald M. Nicol, "Byzantium and England,"  Balkan Studies  15 (1974): 179-203;  Leslie Rogers, "Anglo-Saxons and Icelanders at Byzantium:  With Special Reference to the Icelandic Saga of St. Edward the Confessor," in Australian Association for Byzantine  Studies.  Byzantina Australiensia  1.  Byzantine Papers. Proceedings of the First Australian Byzantine Studies Conference.  Canberra, 17-19 May 1978.  E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and A Moffatt, eds. (Canberra:  Australian National University, 1978), pp. 82-89;  Jonathan Shepard, "Another New England? --Anglo-Saxon Settlement on the Black Sea, Byzantine Studies  1:1 (1974): 18-39;  Jonathan Shepard, " The English and Byzantium:   A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century,"  Traditio  29 (1973): 53-92.

[9]Under Augustus, a private guard of Germans, known as the Collegium Custodum Corporis  or Germani Corporis Custodes,was formed to offset the native Roman Praetorians.  Although they were suppressed later in his reign, the German guard was reformed by Tiberius and served through the reign of Nero.  Later, particularly from the 3rd century on, Germans and other foreigners served in such imperial guard units as the scholae palatinae as well widely throughout the army.  Michael Grant, The Army of the Caesars (New York, 1974), pp. 87, 91, 105, 119, 146-149, 163, 171, 180, 182, 231, 252, 263, 272, 277, 280; and Peter Wilcox, Rome's Enemies: Germanics and Dacians  (London:  Osprey, 1982), pp. 27-32.   On the foreigners in the Roman Army, see A.H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602  (University of Oklahoma Press. 1964), pp. 663-668.

[10]Mauricius, Maurice's Strategikon:  Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy,  George T. Dennis, ed. and tr. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), pp. vii-ix, 12, 28-30, 41-44; Gretser and Goar commentary of Geōrgios Kōdinos, Peri tōn offikialiōn toy palatiou tou Kōnstantinoupoleōs (De officiis),  pp. 209; Sigfus Blöndal, The Varangians of Byzantium, Benedikt S. Benedikz, tr., rev. and ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978) [henceforth, Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians ], p. 21; and Ian Heath, Byzantine Armies 886-1118  (London:  Osprey Publishing, 1979), pp. 13-14.

[11]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , p.21; Heath, pp. 13-14.

[12]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , p.26; Heath, pp. 14.

[13]Benedikt S. Benedikz, "The Origin and Development of the Varangian Regiment in the Byzantine Army,"  Byzantinsches Zeitschrifte   62 (1969): 23-24; and Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , p.21.

[14]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , p.27, 30, 37-38.

[15]Benedikz, pp. 23-24; and Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 41-45.

[16]For varying views, see Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 80-83, 89, 116-117, 123; and G. Vasilievskii, "Variago-russkaia i variaggo-angliiskaia druzhina," pp. 345-350.

[17]For a Description of this route, see Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrant Imperia, Gulag Moravia, ed.  and Roily Jenkins, tr., vol. 2 (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1967), pp. 47-63

[18]Benedikt S. Benedikz, "The Origin and Development of the Varangian Regiment in the Byzantine Army," pp. 24-30; Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 55-121.

[19]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 33-121.

[20]Sigfus Blöndal, "Moabites the Varangian," Classical et Medieval 2 (1939): 145-167; and Blöndal, Væringjsaga  (Reykjavik, 1954).

[21]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 141-147.

[22]The first source discovered that mentioned this particular emigration is a 14th-century Icelandic life of Edward the Confessor entitled the Jarvardar saga.  Study and discussion of this source and emigration  began with a passing note in Blöndal, "Nabites the Varangian," p. 147 and a discussion of the Jarvardar saga's relation to Orderic Vitalis's account by R. M. Dawkins, "The Later History of the Varangian Guard:  Some Notes," The Journal of Roman Studies 37 (1947):41-42.  Blöndal again discussed the emigration mentioned in the Jarvardar saga and concluded that  it was full of  ambiguities (Blöndal, Væringjasaga, p. 218, as quoted in Christine Fell,  " The Icelandic Saga of Edward the Confessor:  Its Version of the Anglo-Saxon Emigration to Byzantium,"  Anglo-Saxon England  3 (1974): 179, n. 5).

[23]Later work by Christine Fell (" The Icelandic Saga of Edward the Confessor:  Its Version of the Anglo-Saxon Emigration to Byzantium," pp. 179-186), Krijnie Ciggaar ("L'emigration anglaise a Byzance apres 1066," Revue des etudes Byzantines  32 [l974]: 301-342); and Jonathan Shepard (" The English and Byzantium:   A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century,"  Traditio  29 [1973]: 53-92) have affirmed that the emigration and recruitment occurred.  Ciggaar's discovery of a corroborating Latin source (Chronicon universale anonymi Laudunensis) and Shepard's comprehensive study of all available sources have gone far to substantiate and clarify conflicting traditions.

[24]The Ecclesiastical History of Ordericus Vitalis, M. Chibnall, ed. and tr., vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 202-205.

[25]Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, E. R. A. Sewter, tr. (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969), pp. 95-96, 100-101, 124, 144, 206, 224, 392, 447.

[26]Blöndal, "Nabites the Varangian," Classica et Mediavalia 2 (1939): 145-167; Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp.  126-127, 141-142; Jonathan Shepard, " The English and Byzantium:   A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century,"  Traditio  29 (1973): 72-76.

[27]The Saga of Edward the Confessor, , in The Orkneyingers' Saga,  G. W. Dasent, tr. vol. 3, Roll Series (London, 1894), pp. 427-428; also in Krijnie Ciggaar, "L'emigration anglaise a Byzance apres 1066," Revue des etudes Byzantines  32 (1974): 340-342.

[28]Ciggaar, "L'emigration anglaise a Byzance apres 1066," p. 323, 337-338.

[29]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 141-147; Ciggaar, "L'emigration anglaise a Byzance apres 1066," p. 301-342; Christine Fell, "A Note on Palsbok," Mediaeval Scandinavia 6 (1973): 102-108; Fell,  " The Icelandic Saga of Edward the Confessor:  Its Version of the Anglo-Saxon Emigration to Byzantium, pp. 179-196;  Constance Head, "Alexios Comnenos and the English," Byzantion 47 (1977): 186-198; Jonathan Shepard, "Another New England?--Anglo-Saxon Settlement on the Black Sea, Byzantine Studies  1:1 (1974): 18-39;  Shepard, "The English and Byzantium," pp. 79-83; R. Theodorescu, “Marginalia to the 11th Century Anglo-Saxons in the Pontic Area," Revue Roumaine d'Histoire 20 (1981): 637-645

[30]Miracula Sancti Augustini Episcopi Cantuariensis, in Acta Sanctorum, May, VI, p. 406; translated in Vasiliev, "The Opening Stages of the Anglo Saxon  Immigration to Byzantium in the Eleventh Century," pp. 60-61.

[31]R. Janin, "La siege de Constantinople et la Patriarchat oecumenicque: les eglises et les monasteres," in La geographie ecclesiastique de l'Empire byzantin, vol. 3 (Paris, 1953), p. 579, 591.

[32]Charles H. Haskins, "A Canterbury Monk at Constantinople," English Historical Review  25 (1910): 293-295.

[33] Shepard, "The English and Byzantium," p. 90.

[34]Peri tōn offikialiōn tou palatiou tou Kōnstantinoupoleōs (De officiis), in J. P. Migne, ed.,  Patrologiae Cursus Completus,  vol. 157  (Paris, 1854), p.76.

[35]Nikētas Chōniatēs, Historia Nikēta Chōniatē), ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1835, p. 547; and the commentary of Jacob Gretser and Jacob Goar of Geōrgios Kōdinos, Peri tōn offikialiōn toy palatiou tou Kōnstantinoupoleōs (De officiis),  in J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae Cursus Completus,  vol. 157  (Paris, 1854), pp. 294-295.

[36]For a discussion of the Danes in the guard, see Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians, pp. 130-141, 147-166, passim.

[37]Warren Hollister, Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions  (Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 134-140;  Nicholas Hooper, "Anglo-Saxon Warfare on the Eve of the Conquest:  A Brief Survey," Anglo-Norman Studies.  Proceedings  of the Battle Abbey Conference I (1978): 85-87.

[38]On the duty and role of the Varangian Guard, see Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians, pp. 177-192 and Timothy Dawson,  “The Uses of the Varangian Guard,” Golden Horn:  Journal of Byzantium 6/1 (1998): 

[39]On the druzhina of the Kievan Rus, see:  M. A. Diakonov, Ocerki obchestvennago i gosudarstvennago stroia drevnii Rusi, ed. 4 (St. Petersburgh, 1912), pp. 74-80; I. A Malinovskii, "Drevniaia russkaia aristokratiia," Sbornik statei po istorii prava posviavennyi M. F. Vladimirskomu-Budanovu  (Kiev, 1904), pp. 256-274; B. I. Sergejevich, Drevnosti Russkago pravda, vol. 1 (St. Petersburgh, 1908), pp. 364-373;  George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1947), pp. 138-139, 174, 177, 334-335; and G. Vernadsky, Medieval Russian Laws (New York: Columbia University Press, 1947), pp. 27-28; M. F. Vladimirskij-Budanov, Obzor istorii Russkago prava, ed. 7 (St. Petersburgh, 1908), pp. 25-31.  On the Vikinge-lags, Danlags  and Jomvikings,see: Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 201-202; and Ian Heath, The Vikings  (London: Osprey, 1985), p. 45.  On the Huscarls, see Warren Hollister, Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions  (Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 134-140;  Nicholas Hooper, "Anglo-Saxon Warfare on the Eve of the Conquest:  A Brief Survey," Anglo-Norman Studies.  Proceedings  of the Battle Abbey Conference I (1978): 85-87: L. M. Lareson, The King's Household in England before the Norman Conquest  (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1904), pp. 157-159.

[40]Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 182-185.

[41]Virtually all Byzantine sources claim that the basic weapon of the guardsmen was the large battle-axe, under the names peleki (axe), rōmphaia (falx), seiromastēn, riptarion, saliba, and tzēkourion (securis, hatchet). There is some question as to whether there was a traditional Byzantine ceremonial halberd-like weapon that was carried in imperial ritual.  Mention of the extensive use of the axe in battle nonetheless links the Varangian axe to that used use by huscarls  and other mercenary troops.  See: Blöndal and Benedikz,Varangians , pp. 183-184; the commentary of Jacob Gretser and Jacob Goar of Geōrgios Kōdinos, Peri tōn offikialiōn toy palatiou tou Kōnstantinoupoleōs (De officiis), in J. P. Migne, ed.,  Patrologiae Cursus Completus,  vol. 157  (Paris, 1854), pp. 269-270, 294-295; Ian Heath, Byzantine Armies, 886-1118 (London: Osprey, 1979), p. 10, 17; Ian Heath, The Vikings (London: Osprey, 1985), p. 51; David Nicolle, Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars (London: Osprey, 1984), pp. 25-31; A. V. B. Norman and Don Pottinger.,English Weapons and Warfare 119-1660 (New York Dorset, 1985), pp. 20-24; George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and All Times (New York:  Brussels, 1961), passim; Terence Wise, Saxon, Viking and Norman (London: Osprey, 1979), pp. 13, 25-26.

[42]The best account of Hardrada's Byzantine career is found in Blöndal and Benedikz, Varangians , pp. 54-110.

[43] Vernadsky, Kievan Russia, pp. 336-337.

[44]Krijnie Ciggaar, "England and Byzantium on the Eve of the Norman Conquest," Anglo-Norman Studies  5(1981): 78-96.

[45]Donald Nicol, "Byzantium and England," Balkan Studies  15 (1974): 191-193; Shepard, "The English and Byzantium," p. 78-80.